Study Reveals Abdominal Fat’s Impact on Brain Health and Cognition in High Alzheimer’s Risk Patients

Researchers at Rutgers Health have found that middle-aged men who are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease tend to be more affected by abdominal fat in terms of brain health and cognition than women are. The amount of fat in the pancreas, liver, and belly fat of middle-aged people with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease is associated with brain volumes and cognitive function, according to a study published in the journal Obesity. Michal Schnaider Beeri, the director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at Rutgers Brain Health Institute, oversaw the study, which was written by Sapir Golan Shekhtman, a Ph.D. candidate at the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel.

The research, conducted on 204 healthy middle-aged Alzheimer’s-dementia offspring, investigated fat depots in the pancreas, liver and abdomen measured with MRI.
“In middle-aged males at high Alzheimer’s disease risk–but not females–higher pancreatic fat was associated with lower cognition and brain volumes, suggesting a potential sex-specific link between distinct abdominal fat and brain health,” said Beeri, who is the Krieger Klein Endowed Chair in Neurodegeneration Research at BHI and a faculty member of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research.

Obesity has varying associations between the sexes and is associated with a higher risk of dementia and lower cognitive functioning. The results of the study emphasize how crucial it is to look into how sex differences affect fat depots, brain aging, and cognition. The study also casts doubt on the body mass index (BMI), which is typically used as the main metric for evaluating the cognitive risks associated with obesity. According to the researchers, BMI does not always take into account sex differences and accurately depicts the distribution of body fat.

“Our results show higher correlations than those found in the relationship between BMI and cognition, indicating that abdominal fat depots are a risk factor for higher dementia risk and lower cognitive functioning rather than BMI,” Shekhtman said. According to Shekhtman, these research findings provide new opportunities for focused interventions and more investigation of sex-specific strategies for comprehending and reducing the negative effects of abdominal fat on brain health.